Disposition

A mosiac of Western Newfoundland’s rural communities and what has been “left behind.”

Thursday, July 17, 2008
Corner Brook-based artist heading to Gros Morne to work “clean air”

On Sunday, July 20, Corner Brook-based artist Mark Adams will be going to Woody point, Bonne Bay, Rocky Harbour, and Norris Point. While there, Adams will be creating a piece that acts as a mosiac of Western Newfoundland’s rural communities and what has been “left behind.” He will be carving and painting from the “plein air,” or as he refers to it in this case, “clean air.”

Moving away from the Newfoundland contemporary art convention of simply taking record of a place and the human activity of the past, Adams places an emphasis on objects or parts of structures used before his lifetime.

“I see Newfoundland as mostly turning into a zone of cultural ruins, a province full of museum-ready artifacts. So it’s mostly going to be a Black-ink stained sheet of pine that I’ll be documenting interesting things down on,” says Adams.

The black stain will soak through the wood, creating darker lines that will reveal cutting lines, creating the objects with the lines as in a drawing. Watercolors and acrylics will be used to record color within shapes made.

Adams says that his inspiration for this project comes from Paterson Ewen and his “Phenonemascapes” or phenomenal landscapes created on plywood with powered carving tools and paint.